m 


Wmm 


O  PRINCETON,  N.  J.  <f> 


Presented  by  Mr.  Samuel  Agnew  of  Philadelphia,  Pa. 


BX  9428 

.Al 

S33 

1877 

S chaff, 

Phil 

1P> 

1819- 

-1893. 

The  harmony 

of 

the  Reformed 

Confessions 

,  as  related  to 

•  - 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2009  with  funding  from 

Princeton  Theological  Seminary  Library 


http://www.archive.org/details/harmonyofreforOOscha 


THE 


HARMONY 


Reformed  Confessions, 

AS  RELATED  TO  THE 
PRESENT  STATE  OF   EVANGELICAL  THEOLOGY. 


An  Essay  delivered  before  the  General  Presbyterian 
Council  at  Edinburgh,  July  4,  i8jj. 


BY 

Philip    Schaff, 

Professor  of  Sacred  Literature  in  the  Union  Theological  Seminary,   New  York. 


Together  avith  the  Action  of  the 
Council   on    Confessions  and   Formulas   of    Subscription. 


NEW   YORK: 

DODD,    MEAD    &   COMPANY, 

751  Broadway. 

1877. 


NOTICE. 


The  following  Essay,  or  the  substance  of  it,  was  delivered  by 
appointment  in  Edinburgh,  at  the  first  session  of  the  First  General 
Presbyterian  Council,  on  the  Fourth  of  July,  1877,  and  led  to  an 
action  which  will  direct  wide  attention  to  the  question  of  creeds, 
and  bring  it  before  the  next  General  Council,  to  be  held  in  Phila- 
delphia in  1SS0.  It  has  been  published  in  England  and  Scotland, 
and  is  now  re-published  in  America,  together  with  the  resolutions  of 
the  Council  thereon,  in  the  hope  that  it  may  help  to  prepare  the 
way  for  a  wise  solution  of  an  important  and  difficult  problem  of 
the  Reformed  Churches. 

New  York,   Oct.,  1877. 


C.JUN  18 

HKOLOI 

. 
CONT 


THE    HARMONY    OF   THE    REFORMED    CONFESSIONS. 

PAGE 

Cranmer's  Proposal  of  a  Reformed  Consensus 5 

The  Reformed  Confessions 9 

The  Harmony  of  the  Reformed  Confessions 15 

1.  Bibliology 16 

2.  Theology  and  Christology 17 

3.  Anthropology  and  Soteriology iS 

4.  Predestination 21 

5.  Ecclesiology 26 

6.  Sacramentology 2S 

7.  Eschatology 3° 

The  Theological  Revolution 31 

The  Revival  of  Evangelical  Theology 34 

The    Relation   of  Modern   Evangelical  Theology  to  the    Re- 
formed Confessions 36 

1.  Bibliology 3§ 

2.  The  Theological  Standpoint 42 

3.  Catholicity 44 

4.  Moderation  of  High  Calvinism 47 

(a)  The  Problem  of  Predestination 48 

(b)  Infant  Salvation 5° 

5.  Religious  Liberty • 52 

The  Reformed  Consensus  and  the  Presbyterian  Council 56 

Conclusion °4 

Action  of  the  General  Presbyterian  Council  on  Confessions 66 

Action  of  the  Committee  of  the  Council. 68 


r  r\ 


THE    HARMONY 


OF    THE 


Reformed  Confessions, 


AS    RELATED    TO    THE 


PRESENT  STATE  OF  EVANGELICAL  THEOLOGY. 


CRANMER'S  PROPOSAL  OF  A  REFORMED  CONSENSUS. 

In  the  year  i552,  while  the  Council  of  Trent 
was  framing  its  decrees  against  the  doctrines  of 
the  Reformation,  Archbishop  Cranmer  invited 
Melanchthon,  Bullinger,  Bucer,  and  Calvin  to  a 
conference  in  London,  for  the  purpose  of  fram- 
ings an  evangelical  union  creed.  To  this  letter 
Calvin  replied  that  for  such  an  object  he  would, 
willingly  cross  ten  seas,  and  that  no  labor  and 
pain  should  be  spared  to  remove,  by  a  scrip- 


6  The  Harmony  of 

tural  consensus,  the  distractions  among  Chris- 
tians, which  he  deplored  as  one  of  the  greatest 
evils.1 

In  this  noble  sentiment  Calvin  expressed  the 
true  genius  of  the  Reformed  Church,  which  has 
always  been  in  favor  of  union  on  the  basis  of 
truth,  and  willing  to  cherish  Christian  fellow- 
ship with  other  evangelical  Churches,  notwith- 
standing minor  differences  in  polity,  worship, 
and  even  in  dogma.  Zwingli  struck  the  key- 
note of  this  catholic  spirit  at  the  conference  in 
Marburg  when,  with  tears  in  his  eyes,  he  of- 
fered the  hand  of  brotherhood  to  Luther,  though 
he  could  not  agree  with  him  on  the  mode  of 
Christ's  presence  in  the  Eucharist.    Calvin  once 

"  Quantum  ad  me  attinet,  si  quis  mei  usus  fore  videbitur, 
ne  decern  quidem  maria,  si  opus  sit,  ob  earn  rem  trajicere 
pigcat.  Si  de  juvando  tantum  Anglice  regno  agerctur,  jam 
mihi  ea  satis  legitima  ratio  foret.  Nunc  cum  queer atur  gravis 
et  ad  Scriptural  normam  probe  compositus  doctor um  Jwmiuum 
consensus,  quo  ecdesio3  procul  alioqui  dissitaz  inter  se  coales- 
cant,  nullis  vel  laborious  vel  molestiis  parccre  fas  mihi  esse 

arbitror Mihi  utinam  par  studii  ardori  suppe- 

teret  facultas /" — See  the  correspondence  in  Cranmer's 
Works  (Parker  Soc.  ed.),  vol.  ii.,  pp.  430-433. 


The  Reformed  Confessions.  7 

declared,  that  even  if  Luther  should  call  him  a 
devil,  he  would  still  revere  and  love  him  as  one 
of  the  greatest  servants  of  God. 

.Cranmer,  the  moderate  and  cautious  reformer 
and  martyr  of  the  Church  of  England,  the  chief 
framer  of  its  Liturgy  and  Articles  of  Religion  ; 
Melanchthon,  "  the  preceptor  of  Germany,"  the 
gentle  companion  of  the  heroic  Luther,  the 
author  of  the  Augsburg  Confession,  and  the 
surviving  patriarch  of  the  German  Reforma- 
tion ;  Bullinger,  the  friend  and  successor  of 
Zwingli,  the  teacher  and  benefactor  of  the 
Marian  exiles,  and  the  author  of  the  most  oecu- 
menical among  the  Reformed  Confessions  ; 
Bucer,  the  indefatigable,  though  unsuccessful, 
peace-maker  between  the  Lutherans  and  Zwin- 
glians,  and  the  mediator  between  the  Anglican 
and  the  Continental  Reformation  ;  Calvin,  the 
master-theologian,  commentator,  legislator,  and 
disciplinarian,  who  was  then  just  in  the  prime 
of  his  power,  and  (in  the  language  of  John 
Knox)  at  the  head  of  "the  most  flourishing 
school  of  Christ  since  the  days  of  the  apostles" 


8  The  Harmony  of 

— these  representative  men,  assembled  in  Lam- 
beth Palace  or  the  Jerusalem  Chamber,  would 
have  rilled  an  important  chapter  in  church 
history,  and  challenged  the  assent  of  the  Re- 
formed Churches  for  a  common  confession  of 
faith  that  embodied  their  learning,  wisdom,  and 
experience. 

But  the  conference  was  frustrated  by  politi- 
cal events,  and  a  Reformed  union  creed  re- 
mains a  pium  desiderium  to  this  day.  '  Dens 
Jiabet  suas  horas  ct  moras!  It  was  the  will  of 
Providence  that  the  Continental  and  the  Eng- 
lish and  American  branches  of  the  Reformed 
family  should  grow  up  independently,  and  ful- 
fill their  special  mission  to  their  age  and  coun- 
try. Each  shaped  its  own  creed,  polity,  and 
worship.  Thus,  instead  of  one  confession  and 
one  catechism  which  might  have  answered  for 
all,  we  have  as  many  confessions  and  catechisms 
as  there  are  national  Churches,  and  even  more. 


The  Reformed  Confessions.  9 

THE   REFORMED  CONFESSIONS. 

The  Reformed  Confessions  may  be  divided 
into  three  classes  —  the  ante-Calvinistic  or 
Zwinglian,  the  Calvinistic,  and  the  post-Cal- 
vinistic.  The  first  represent  the  preparatory 
stage,  and  acquired  only  local  authority  in 
Switzerland.  The  second  class  were  framed 
under  the  influence  of  Calvin's  theology  after 
the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century,  simultane- 
ously with  the  Tridentine  standards  of  the 
Roman  Church,  and  in  vindication  of  the  pro- 
test against  Rome.  The  third  class  were  made 
in  the  seventeenth  century,  and  arose  from 
theological  controversies  within  the  Reformed 
Church. 

The  confessional  development  of  the  Luther- 
an Church  beean  with  the  Au^sburgf  Confession 
in  1530,  and  was  completed,  after  stormy  con- 
troversies, in  the  Formula  of  Concord,  i5y/. 
The  Roman  Catholic  system  of  doctrine  re- 
ceived its  pyramidal  apex  only  in  our  age 
under  the  long  reign  of  the  first  infallible  pope 

T# 


io  The  Harmony  of 

by  the  decrees  of  the  Vatican  Council  (1870). 
The  symbolic  tendencies  of  Romanism  and 
Protestantism  are  opposite — the  former  may 
indefinitely  increase  the  number  of  dogmas  to 
the  maximum  of  belief,  and  can  never  give  up 
or  revise  a  single  article  without  destroying  its 
claim  to  infallibility  ;  the  latter  diminishes  the 
number  to  the  scriptural  minimum,  and  allows  a 
correspondingly  larger  freedom  to  private  judg- 
ment and  theological  progress. 

The  chief  Reformed  symbols  of  the  six- 
teenth century  are — The  Galilean  Confession, 
for  the  Protestants  of  France  (i55c;);  the  Bel- 
gle  Confession,  for  the  Netherlands  (i56i)  ;  the 
Second  Helvetic  Confession,  for  Switzerland  and 
other  countries  (i566)  ;  the  Heidelberg  Cate- 
chism, for  Germany  and  Holland  (1563)  ;  the 
two  Scotch  Confessions  (i56o  and  i58i),  which 
were  subsequently  superseded  by  the  West- 
minster standards ;  and  the  Thlrty-N~ine  Ar- 
ticles of  the  Church  of  England  (1563),  which 
likewise  belong  to  the  Reformed  type  of  doc- 
trine, especially  as  explained  and  supplemented 


The  Reformed  Confessions.  1 1 

by  the  Lambeth  Articles  (i595),  and  the  Irish 
Articles  of  Archbishop  Ussher  (i6i5),  which 
prepared  the  way  for  the  Westminster  Confes- 
sion. 

-The  two  chief  symbols  of  the  seventeenth 
century  are  the  Canons  of  the  Synod  of  Dort 
(1619),  which  give  the  results  of  the  Arminian 
controversy  on  the  five  knotty  points  of  scho- 
lastic Calvinism,  and  the  Westminster  Confes- 
sion and  Catechisms  (1647),  which  grew  out 
of  the  mighty  conflict  between  Puritanism  and 
semi-Romanism,  and  sum  up  the  results  of 
what  may  be  called  the  second  Reformation 
of  England.  They  present  the  ablest,  the 
clearest,  and  the  fullest  statement  of  the  Cal- 
vinistic  system  of  doctrine.  Although  least 
known  on  the  Continent,  and  given  by  Nie- 
meyer  merely  as  an  appendix  to  his  Collection 
of  Reformed  Confessions,  the  Westminster 
standards  are  the  most  important  of  the  Re- 
formed symbols,  and  have  shown  the  great- 
est vitality.  It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  they 
were  made  by  English  divines  for  three  king- 


12  TJic  Harmony  of 

doms  under  the  shade  of  Westminster  Abbey, 
and  around  the  warm  hearth  of  the  historic 
Jerusalem  Chamber,  where  now  the  revision  of 
the  English  Bible  is  being  prepared  for  the 
use  of  all  English-speaking  Churches.  These 
standards  were  rejected  in  the  land  of  their 
birth,  but  became  the  corner-stone  of  the 
Churches  of  Scotland  and  of  Churches  beyond 
the  Atlantic  and  Pacific.  Failing  in  England, 
they  have  shaped  the  theology  and  religion  of 
countries  and  nations  unknown  to  the  authors. 
They  have  been  adopted  not  only  by  Presby- 
terians, but  also — with  some  modifications  on 
church  polity  and  the  doctrine  of  baptism,  and 
with  a  reservation  of  greater  freedom — by  the 
orthodox  Conore^ationalists  and  the  Regular 
or  Calvinistic  Baptists  in  Great  Britain  and 
America. 

These  Reformed  Confessions  form  a  very 
remarkable  body  of  literature.  They  were 
composed  by  confessors  and  martyrs  of  the 
Reformed  faith  in  times  of  the  deepest  intellec- 
tual and  religious  commotion,  and   in   the  face 


The  Reformed  Co7tfessio?is.  13 

of  cruel  persecution.  They  are  fraught  with 
the  memories  of  the  most  important  period  of 
church  history,  next  to  the  creative  period  of 
the  apostles.  They  embody  the  biblical  and 
theological  learning  and  wisdom  of  the  Refor- 
mers, and  the  ripe  fruit  of  the  gigantic  struggle 
with  the  papal  power  which  had  kept  the  Chris- 
tian world  under  discipline  and  in  bondage  for 
many  centuries.  They  set  forth,  not  abstract 
doctrines,  but  vital  truths  for  which  the  confes- 
sors were  ready  to  suffer  exile,  imprisonment, 
torture,  and  death.  Some  are  indeed  systems 
of  theology  rather  than  popular  summaries  of 
faith  ;  but  all  are  full  of  faith  and  enthusiasm  for 
the  truths  of  the  gospel.  They  have  fashioned 
the  religious  opinions  and  lives  of  many  gene- 
rations, and  trained  the  most  heroic  races  of 
Christians  and  the  pioneers  of  civil  and  reli- 
gious freedom — the  Huguenots  of  France,  the 
Burghers  of  Holland,  the  Puritans  of  England, 
the  Covenanters  of  Scotland,  and  the  Pilgrim 
Fathers  of  America.  They  will  ever  remain 
venerable   monuments   of  a    pure   and    heroic 


14  The  Harmony  of 

faith  from  the  creative  period  of  the  evangeli- 
cal Churches. 

The  Reformed  (as  also  the  Lutheran)  Con- 
fessions were  not  intended  by  their  framers  to 
h^e  binding-  formulas  for  subscription  and  checks 
upon  theological  progress.  Otherwise  they 
would  have  been  made  much  shorter  and. sim- 
pler. They  were  originally  apologetic  documents 
or  vindications  of  the  evangelical  faith  against 
misrepresentation  and  slander.  Hence  some 
of  them  embody  a  large  amount  of  controver- 
sial and  metaphysical  matter,  and  are  too  long 
and  minute  for  popular  use.  They  resemble 
the  early  Christian  Apologies,  with  this  differ- 
ence, that  they  were  directed  against  Roman- 
ism instead  of  Paganism,  and  represent  a  more 
advanced  and  mature  stage  in  the  development 
of  Christian  doctrine.  Their  official  character 
and  their  intrinsic  merits  clothed  them  gradually 
with  an  ecclesiastical  authority  inferior  only  to 
that  of  the  Holy  Scriptures.  They  became  the 
rule  of  all  public  teaching  in  the  pulpit  and  the 
university.     They  were  a  sort  of  secondary  rule 


The  Reformed  Confessions.  i5 

of  faith  (the  norma  normata),  derived  from  the 
primary  rule  of  the  Scriptures  (the  norma  nor- 
vians).  They  continued  in  force  during  the 
seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries,  and 
though  since  partly  displaced  in  the  Churches 
on  the  Continent,  they  still  express  the  faith  of 
some  of  the  most  enlightened  and  active  sec- 
tions of  the  Christian  world. 

THE  HARMONY  OF  THE  REFORMED  CONFESSIONS. 

The  Reformed  Confessions  present  the  same, 
system  of  Christian  doctrine.  They  are  varia- 
tions of  one  theme.  There  is  fully  as  much 
harmony  between  them  as  between  the  six 
symbolical  books  of  the  Lutheran  Church,  or 
between  the  Tridentine  and  Vatican  decrees  of 
Rome.  The  difference  is  confined  to  minor  de- 
tails, and  to  the  extent  to  which  the  Augus- 
tinian  and  Calvinistic  principles  are  carried  out ; 
in  other  words,  the  difference  is  theological,  not 
religious,  and  logical  rather  than  theological.1 

1  The  documentary  proof  of  this  agreement  was  fur- 
nished long  ago  by  extracts  from  the  Confessions  them- 


1 6  The  Harmony  of 

The  Reformed  Confessions  are  Protestant  in 
bibliology,  oecumenical  or  old  catholic  in  the- 
ology and  christology,  Augustinian  in  anthro- 
pology and  the  doctrine  of  predestination,  evan- 
gelical in  soteriology,  Calvinistic  in  ecclesiology 
and  sacramentology,  and  anti-papal  in  eschato- 
logy. 

Let  us  briefly  explain  this. 

i.  Bibliology  or  the  Rule  of  Faith. — The 
Reformed  symbols  unanimously  teach,  as  a  fun- 
damental principle  of  Protestantism,  the  divine 
inspiration  and  absolute  and  exclusive  authority 
of  the  canonical  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and  New 
Testaments  in  all  matters  of  the  Christian  faith 
and  morals,  in  opposition  to  the  Roman  Catho- 
lic doctrine  of  ecclesiastical  traditions,  as  a  co- 
ordinate rule  of  faith  and  infallible  interpreter 
of  the  Scriptures.  This  doctrine  is  most  clearly 
and  fully  set  forth  in  the  first  chapter  of  the 


selves,  in  the  Harmony  of  Confessions,  prepared  and  pub- 
lished under  the  direction  of  Beza  at  Geneva,  1581,  in 
Latin,  and  translated  into  English  (Cambridge,  1586,  also 
London,  1643  and  1842). 


The  Reformed  Confessions.  ij 

Westminster  Confession,  which  is  an  acknowl- 
edged masterpiece  of  symbolic  statement. 

The  Lutheran  Church  and  the  Anglican 
Church  maintain  the  same  principle,  but  in 
practice  they  allow  tradition  and  the  voice  of  the 
early  fathers  and  councils  a  greater  authority 
and  influence,  especially  in  matters  of  church 
polity  antl  worship,  than  the  Calvinistic  Churches. 

2.  Theology  and  Christology. — The  oecu- 
menical articles  of  the  unity  and  tripersonality 
of  the  Godhead,  the  incarnation,  and  the  thean- 
thropic  constitution  of  Christ's  person,  wrere  ex- 
pressly endorsed  by  all  the  Reformers  ;  and 
hence  the  Apostles'  Creed  and  the  Nicene  Creed 
(to  a  less  extent  also  the  Athanasian  Creed  so- 
called)  were  retained  in  the  Protestant  Churches. 

Herein  the  Protestant  symbols  agree  with 
the  orthodox  Greek  and  the  Roman  Catholic 
standards  in  opposition  to  ancient  and  modern 
Trinitarian  and  Christolo^ical  heresies.  A  dif- 
ference  sprung  up  between  the  Lutheran  and 
Reformed  Christology  in  connection  with  the 
Eucharistic  controversy,  concerning  the  extent 


1 8  The  Harmony  of 

of  the  communicatio  idiomatum  and  the  ubiquity 
of  Christ's  body,  but  this  subject  belongs  to  the 
obscurest  corner  of  theological  metaphysics, 
and  does  not  affect  the  great  truth  of  God 
manifest  in  the  flesh,  which  is  taught  by  both 
Churches  with  equal  emphasis.  The  Reformed 
Christology  is  more  simple  and  natural  than  the 
Lutheran,  and  accords  better  with  the  historical 
Christ  of  the  Gospels. 

3.  Anthropology  and  Soteriology. — The 
Reformed  symbols  teach  the  Augustinian  views 
of  sin  and  grace,  that  is,  the  total  depravity  and 
condemnation  of  the  whole  human  race  in 
consequence  of  Adam's  fall,  and  the  absolute 
sovereignty  and  sufficiency  of  divine  grace  in 
the  work  of  salvation.  They  strongly  empha- 
size these  doctrines  in  opposition  to  the  then 
prevailing  Pelagianism  of  the  Latin  Church, 
with  its  mechanical  legalism  and  meritorious 
works  on  which  salvation  was  made  to  depend. 
The  Reformers  passed  through  the  experience 
of  St.  Paul ;  they  felt  the  operation  of  the  law 
upon   the   heart  and  conscience,   as  a  school- 


The  Rcfori7ied  Confessions.  19 

master  leading  to  Christ.  They  started  with 
an  overwhelming  sense  of  the  awful  fact  of  sin 
and  the  absolute  need  of  redemption.  Their 
theology  was  intensely  practical,  and  turned  on 
the  question,  What  shall  a  man  do  to  be  saved, 
and  how  shall  a  sinner  be  justified  before  a  holy 
and  righteous  God  ?  To  this  the  New  Testa- 
ment, and  especially  the  Epistles  to  the  Romans 
and  Galatians,  returned  the  answer,  Not  by  any 
works  and  institutions  of  man,  not  by  any  out- 
ward observances  and  performances,  but  solely 
by  the  free  grace  of  God  in  Christ,  which  is  the 
beginning,  the  middle,  and  the  end  of  spiritual 
life.  Thus  salvation  by  grace  became  the  cen- 
tral doctrine,  the  experimental  or  subjective 
principle  of  Protestantism,  and  the  fountain  of 
comfort  and  peace  in  life  and  in  death. 

The  Reformed  system  went  back  to  the  ulti- 
mate source  of  free  salvation  in  the  pre-mun- 
dane  eternal  act  of  election,  upon  which  the 
historical  process  of  salvation  in  all  its  stages 
depends  ;  while  Luther  made  the  experimental 
fact  of  justification  by  faith  alone,  the  article  of 


20  The  Harmony  of 

the  standing  or  falling  Church.  The  Reformed 
system,  moreover,  lays  greater  stress  on  holi- 
ness and  good  works,  as  the  necessary  mani- 
festation of  justifying  faith. 

In  anthropology  the  Reformers  were  entirely 
under  the  spell  of  the  anti- Pelagian  writings  of 
St.  Augustine,  whom  they  revered  as  the  great- 
est, soundest,  and  most  evangelical  among  the 
fathers.  But  his  anti-Manichsean  and  anti-Don- 
atist  writings  are  more  on  the  Roman  Catholic 
than  on  the  Protestant  side  of  the  controversy. 
Zwingli,  with  his  classical  rather  than  mediaeval 
training,  was  independent  of  patristic  authority, 
and  taught  a  milder  view  of  hereditary  sin  and 
guilt  than  either  Luther  or  Calvin.  The  Au- 
gustinian  system  always  had  some  able  advo- 
cates in  the  Latin  Church,  but  was  overshadow- 
ed by  hierarchical,  sacramentarian,  and  ascetic 
tendencies  ;  while  the  Greek  Church  adhered 
to  the  less  definite,  we  might  say,  semi-Pelagian 
views  of  the  older  fathers,  and  lays  great  stress 
on  the  freedom  of  will. 

The  Protestant  soteriology  differs  from   the 


The  Reformed  Confessions.  21 

Augustinian,  at  least  in  form,  and  is  more  evan- 
gelical. Augustine,  who  was  poorly  acquainted 
with  Greek  and  Hebrew,  and  followed  the  Latin 
version  of  the  Bible,  had  the  Roman  Catholic 
conception  of  justification,  understanding  it  to 
be  a  gradual  process  of  making  just  (which  vir- 
tually identifies  it  with  sanctification) ;  while  the 
Protestant  divines,  in  accordance  with  the  Hel- 
lenistic usage  of  the  corresponding  Greek  terms 
(dixaicoffis  and  ducaioco)  viewed  justification  as 
a  forensic  or  declaratory  act  of  acquittal  from 
the  guilt  and  condemnation  of  sin,  on  the 
ground  of  the  merits  of  Christ,  and  on  condition 
of  faith  apprehending  Christ,  to  be  necessarily 
followed  by  gradual  growth  in  holiness.  Justi- 
fication is  the  beginning  of  sanctification,  yet 
distinct  -from  it  as  a  single  act  is  from  a  gradual 
process,  as  birth  is  from  the  life  which  follows. 

4.  Predestination. — The  symbols  teach  the 
positive  decree  of  an  eternal  and  unchangeable 
election  of  believers  to  holiness  and  salvation, 
and  the  perseverance  of  saints  as  a  necessary 
means  to  that  end  ;  while  the  rest  are  left  to  the 


22  The  Harmony  of 

consequences  of  their  sin.  All  men  are  justly 
condemned,  but  God  in  his  sovereign  mercy 
chooses  to  elect  a  part  from  this  mass  of  cor- 
ruption, and  to  reveal  in  them  the  boundless 
riches  of  his    grace    in    Christ.      This    is    the 

o 

amount  of  the  Reformed  dogma  of  predestina- 
tion as  far  as  it  has  any  practical  religious  value, 
and  is  taught  directly  or  indirectly  in  all  sym- 
bols. The  negative  decree  of  reprobation  is 
wisely  passed  by,  or  mentioned  only  as  a  judi- 
cial act  in  view  of  sins  actually  committed.  The 
fall  of  Adam  is  put  under  a  permissive  (not  an 
efficient  or  causal)  decree,  and  the  blasphemous 
doctrine  that  God  is  in  any  sense  the  author  or 
approver  of  sin  is  expressly  and  emphatically 
condemned. 

This  is  the  infralapsarian  scheme  of  redemp- 
tion which  Augustine  taught  as  a  necessary 
consequence  of  his  doctrine  of  universal  damna- 
tion in  Adam,  and  the  total  moral  inability  of 
man.  The  supralapsarian  scheme  which  differs 
from  the  former  in  the  order  of  the  decrees, 
and,  with  a  severer  but  terrible  logic,  represents 


The  Reformed  Confessions.  23 

the  fall  as  a  necessary  negative  condition  for  the 
manifestation  of  God's  redeeming  mercy  on  the 
elect,  and  his  punitive  justice  on  the  reprobate, 
was  held  as  a  private  opinion  by  some  eminent 
Calvinists  such  as  Beza,  Gomarus,  Twiss,  but  it 
is  not  taught  in  any  Confession  ;  even  the  Ca- 
nons of  Dort,  the  Westminster  Confession,  and 
the  Helvetic  Consensus  Formula,  which  are 
most  pronounced  on  the  doctrine  of  decrees, 
stop  within  the  limits  of  infralapsarianism.  And 
it  should  be  noticed  that  the  Westminster  Con- 
fession expressly  teaches  the  freedom  of  will  as 
well  as  the  sovereignty  of  God,  leaving  the 
solution  of  the  apparent  antinomy  to  scientific 
theology.  It  is  also  a  remarkable  fact,  that 
in  the  Westminster  Assembly,  as  the  recently 
published  Minutes  show,  the  scheme  of  a  uni- 
versal offer  of  salvation  or  hypothetical  univer- 
salism  found  advocates  anions  the  ablest  and 
most  influential  members,  such  as  Calamy,  Ar- 
rowsmith,  Vines,  and  Seaman.1 

1  See  my  work  on  the  Creeds  of  Christendom,  vol.  i.,  p.  770. 


24  The  Harmony  of 

The  subject  of  predestination  holds  a  promi- 
nent, and,  we  may  say,  a  disproportionate  place 
in  the  Calvinistic  system.  It  was  a  necessary 
and  wholesome  reaction  against  the  papal  doc- 
trine of  human  merit.  It  was  considered  as  the 
backbone  of  the  doctrines  of  free  grace,  and 
was  death  to  all  pride  and  self-righteousness. 
It  furnished  an  immovable  basis  in  eternity  for 
the  salvation  in  time,  and  the  most  solid  com- 
fort to  the  believer,  in  seasons  of  despondency 
and  temptation.  Hence  we  find  it  among  all 
the  Reformers.  Luther,  in  his  tract  on  The 
Slavery  of  the  Human  Will,  which  he  never 
recalled,  but  regarded  as  one  of  his  best  books, 
goes  even  further  in  this  direction  than  Calvin 
ever  did.  Melanchthon  was  at  first  almost  a 
fatalist  (tracing  the  fall  of  Adam,  the  adultery 
of  David,  and  the  treason  of  Judas  to  the  will 
of  God),  but  afterwards  he  suggested  what  is 
called  the  system  of  synergism  (an  improved 
evangelical  form  of  semi-Pelagianism  and  an 
anticipation  of  Arminianism).  The  Formula  of 
Concord,  however,  rejected  it,  and  teaches  total 


The  Reformed  Confessions.  2  5 

inability  and  unconditional  election,  yet  at  the 
same  time  also  universal  vocation,  or  the  sincere 
will  of  God  to  save  all  men,  and  the  resistibility 
of  divine  grace.1  The  difference  between  the 
Calvinistic  and  the  Lutheran  symbols  is,  that  the 
former  are  more  consistent  with  the  Augustin- 
ian  anthropology,  and  give  greater  prominence 
to  election,  while  the  latter  emphasize  baptismal 
grace  and  a  universal  call  to  salvation.  But,  in 
point  of  fact,  the  vast  mass  of  mankind  never 
hear  the  sound  of  the  gospel  within  the  limits 
of  the  present  life  to  which  all  orthodox  systems 
confine  the  possibility  of  salvation.  Calvinism 
reckons  with  actual  facts  as  they  appear  to  all 
observers,  and  traces  them  back  to  the  inscruta- 

1  The  later  Lutheran  divines  since  Hunnius  endeavored 
to  solve  this  contradiction  of  the  Formula  of  Concord  by  a 
distinction  between  the  single  voluntas  antecedens  by  which 
God,  from  eternity  foreseeing  (not  foreordaining)  the  fall 
of  Adam,  resolved  to  save  all  men,  and  the  double  volun- 
tas conscquens  whereby,  foreseeing  that  some  would  believe 
and  some  would  not  believe,  he  resolved  (likewise  from 
eternity)  to  save  those  who  would  believe,  though  not 
propter  fide m,  but  per  fide in  or  ex  pnevisa  fide,  and,  on  the 
other  hand,  to  condemn  those  who  would  not  believe. 


26  The  Harmony  of 

ble  will  of  God,  which  is  holy  and  wise,  though 
we  cannot  fathom  it. 

5.  Ecclesiology. — The  Reformed  symbols 
make  an  important  distinction  between  the  visi- 
ble (actual)  Church,  which  is  manifold  and  exists 
in  various  oreanizations  or  denominations,  and 
the  invisible  (ideal)  Church,  which  is  one  and 
universal,  and  embraces  all  the  elect  or  true 
believers  of  whatever  denomination  or  sect. 
They  also  distinguish  in  each  visible  church  or 
congelation  between  communicant  members 
which  constitute  the  church  proper,  and  the 
nominal  members  or  hearers.  They  lay  stress 
on  the  necessity  of  discipline  for  the  preserva- 
tion of  the  purity  and  dignity  of  the  Church. 
They  maintain  the  right  of  ecclesiastical  self- 
government,  as  distinct  from  the  power  of  the 
Civil  Magistrate ;  although  in  practice  this  right 
is  more  or  less  abridged  wherever  the  Church 
is  united  to  .the  State  and  supported  by  the  State. 
(For  self-government  and  self-support  go  to- 
gether ;  and  he  who  pays  wants  to  rule.)  The 
Reformed  standards  teach  the  parity   of  minis- 


The  Reformed  Confessions.  27 

tcrs,  the  institution  of  lay-elders  and  deacons 
representing  the  people,  and  presbyterial  and 
synodical  legislation  and  administration.  The 
presbyterian  form  of  government  Avas  born 
in  Geneva,  and  fully  developed  in  Holland, 
Scotland,  and  the  United  States. 

Herein  the  Presbyterians  differ  from  Epis- 
copalians on  the  one  hand,  who  maintain  epis- 
copacy and  three  orders  of  the  ministry,  and 
from  Conereeationalists  on  the  other,  who 
deny  the  legislative  authority  of  presbyteries 
and  synods,  and  teach  the  independence  of 
each  congregation  properly  constituted  accord- 
ing to  the  Word  of  God.  But  the  questions 
of  presbytery,  episcopacy,  and  independen- 
cy are  questions  of  polity,  not  of  dogma. 
Moreover,  the  Church  of  England  in  her  stand- 
ards holds  that  episcopacy  is  not  the  only,  but 
the  best  form  of  government,  and  necessary 
not  for  the  being,  but  only  for  the  well-being  of 
the  Church.  She  never  officially  denied  the 
validity  of  non-episcopal  orders,  and  even  ex- 
pressly acknowledged    them    in   various  ways 


2S  The  Harmony  of 

down  to  the  period  of  Laud,  the  first  typical 
high-churchman,  who  when  he  defended  the 
principle  of  exclusive  episcopacy  was  censured 
by  the  authorities  of  the  University  of  Oxford. 
The  unwise  and  unrighteous  attempts  of  the 
Stuarts  to  force  episcopacy  upon  the  reluctant 
people  of  Scotland  have  made  the  difference 
much  greater  than  it  originally  was  in  the  mind 
of  Calvin  and  Knox,  as  well  as  of  Cranmer, 
Latimer,  and  Ridley. 

6.  Sacramentology. — The  two  sacraments 
of  the  New  Testament  are  significant  sealing 
ordinances,  whose  efficacy  depends  on  the  faith 
of  the  recipient.  The  opus  operatum  theory, 
the  necessary  connection  of  water  baptism  with 
moral  regeneration,  and  all  materialistic  con- 
ceptions of  the  real  presence,  whether  in  the 
form  of  transubstantiation  or  consubstantiation, 
are  rejected. 

Here  lies  the  only  serious  doctrinal  difference 
between  the  Calvinistic  and  the  Lutheran  sym- 
bols. The  former  make  spiritual  regeneration 
independent  of  water  baptism,  so   that  it  may 


The  Reformed  Confessions.  29 

either  precede  or  succeed  it  or  coincide  with 
it,  according  to  the  divine  pleasure  ;  and  they 
teach  a  spiritual  real  or  dynamic  and  effective 
presence  of  Christ  in  the  Eucharist  for  believers 
only,  while  unworthy  communicants  receive  no 
more  than  the  consecrated  elements  to  their 
own  judgment.  The  latter  teach  unconditional 
baptismal  regeneration,  and  a  corporeal  real 
presence  of  the  true  body  and  blood  of  Christ 
in,  with,  and  under  the  visible  elements,  for  all 
communicants,  worthy  or  unworthy,  though 
with  opposite  effects.  The  Lutheran  theory  of 
the  real  presence  and  oral  manducation  requires 
for  its  dogmatic  support  either  a  perpetual  mir- 
acle (as  the  Roman  theory  of  tran  substantia- 
tion), or  the  hypothesis  of  the  ubiquity  of 
Christ's  body  (taught  by  Luther  and  the  For- 
mula of  Concord).  This  hypothesis  is  rejected 
by  all  branches  of  the  Reformed  Church  as 
beine  inconsistent  with  the  limitation  of  all  cor- 
poreal  substances,  and  with  the  facts  of  Christ's 
visible  ascension  to  heaven  and  future  return 
from    heaven.     Some    of  the   ablest    Lutheran 


30  The  Harmony  of 

divines,  however,  sustain  on  purely  philological 
grounds  the  Reformed  or  figurative  interpreta- 
tion of  the  words  of  institution,  and  admit  that  a 
literal  interpretation  of  them  would  lead  to  tran- 
substantiation  rather  than  consubstantiation. 

The  Church  of  England  teaches  in  her  form- 
ularies  the  Calvin istic  theory  of  the  sacraments 
in  general,  and  of  the  Lord's  Supper  in  particu- 
lar ;  but  in  the  baptismal  service  of  the  Book 
of  Common  Prayer  she  clearly  teaches  bap- 
tismal regeneration  without  qualification,  and  in 
practice  she  gives  larger  scope  than  the  Presby- 
terian Churches  to  the  sacramentarian  principle. 

7.  Eschatology. — The  Reformed  (as  well  as 
all  other  Protestant)  symbols  recognize  but  two 
places  and  states  in  the  invisible  world — heaven 
for  believers  and  hell  for  unbelievers,  with  dif- 
ferent degrees  of  bliss  and  misery,  according  to 
the  degrees  of  holiness  and  wickedness.  They 
unanimously  reject  the  mediaeval  fiction  of  an 
intervening  purgatory  for  imperfect  believers, 
with  its  gross  superstitions  and  abuses.  The 
doctrine  of  the  middle  state  of  all  departed  spi- 


The  Reformed  Confessions.  31 

rits  between  death  and  resurrection,  which  is 
distinct  from  the  question  of  purgatory,  was  left 
unsettled,  and  is  to  this  day  a  matter  of  theolo- 
gical speculation  rather  than  positive  doctrine. 
It  is  characteristic  that  the  scriptural  distinction 
between  Sheol  or  Hades,  and  Gehenna  or  Hell, 
is  obliterated  in  the  Lutheran,  the  English,  and 
other  Protestant  versions. 

THE  THEOLOGICAL  REVOLUTION. 

This  body  of  doctrine  laid  down  in  the  Con- 
fessions maintained  its  hold  upon  the  Reformed 
Churches  of  Switzerland,  Germany,  France, 
Holland,  England,  and  America  for  more  than 
two  centuries,  and  is  still  a  living  power  in 
the  Presbyterian  Churches  of  the  Anglo-Saxon 
race.  It  was  analyzed,  systematized,  and  devel- 
oped in  all  its  details  by  the  scholastic  theology, 
which  forms  a  worthy  parallel  to  the  mediaeval 
scholasticism  of  the  Latin  Church  in  its  relation 
to  the  patristic  doctrines,  being  nearly  equal  to 
it  in  metaphysical  subtlety,  and  superior  in  solid 
scriptural  learning.     But  all  forms  of  scholasti- 


32  TJie  Harmony  of 

cism  are  apt  to  degenerate  into  a  dry  and  sterile 
intellectualism,  and  to  provoke  a  reaction. 

After  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
which  may  be  called  the  century  of  revolution, 
a  destructive  tornado  swept  over  the  Churches 
of  the  Continent,  and  threatened  to  carry  away 
the  very  foundations  of  Christianity.  It  began 
with  Deism  in  England,  which  substituted  a 
meager  skeleton  of  natural  religion  for  the  re- 
vealed religion  of  the  Bible  ;  but  the  progress 
of  Deism  was  checked  by  the  Methodist  revival, 
and  the  apologetic  works  of  Butler  and  Lard- 
ner.  In  France  Deism  degenerated  into  a  bias- 
phemous  Atheism.  Voltaire  and  Rousseau,  the 
apostles  of  infidelity  and  architects  of  ruin,  un- 
dermined the  foundations  of  Romanism  which, 
by  cruelly  persecuting  the  Huguenots  and 
casting  out  the  Jansenists,  provoked  the  Rev- 
olution with  its  reien  of  terror.  In  the  Luth- 
eran  Church  of  Germany  the  negative  move- 
ment assumed  the  more  serious  form  of  Ration- 
alism which,  in  its  various  phases  and  stages, 
revolutionized   exegetical,  historical,    and    sys- 


The  Reformed  Confessions.  33 

tematic  theology.  The  Reformed  Churches 
of  Great  Britain  and  North  America,  owing  to 
their  isolation  and  their  better  organization,  re- 
mained, upon  the  whole,  faithful  to  their  doc- 
trinal and  disciplinary  standards  ;  but  in  the 
Reformed  Churches  of  the  Continent  the  sym- 
bolical books  were  nearly  all  abolished  or  re- 
duced to  a  dead  letter,  and  it  seems  impossible 
to  restore  them  to  their  former  authority. 

This  theological  revolution  or  pseudo-refor- 
mation has  done,  and  is  still  doing,  an  incalcu- 
lable amount  of  harm  ;  but  it  was  a  revolt  of 
reason  against  the  tyranny  of  symbololatry,  and 
proved  a  wholesome  purgatory  of  orthodoxy. 
It  dispelled  old  prejudices,  and  stimulated  new 
and  deeper  inquiry  ;  it  advanced  biblical  phil- 
ology and  criticism,  and  enriched  the  stores  of 
historical  knowledge.  It  compelled  the  inves- 
tigation and  recognition  of  the  human  aspect 
and  fortunes  of  Christianity  in  opposition  to 
the  exclusive  consideration  of  its  unchangeable 
divine  aspect.  Thus  error  is  always  providen- 
tially overruled  for  the  progress  of  truth. 


34  The  Harmony  of 

THE    REVIVAL   OF   EVANGELICAL   THEOLOGY. 

The  nineteenth  century  may  be  characterized 
as  the  century  of  revival  and  reconstruction. 
Rationalism,  indeed,  is  by  no  means  dead  ;  it 
continues,  in  the  name  of  biblical  criticism,  spec- 
ulative philosophy,  natural  science,  and  humani- 
tarian culture,  to  undermine  the  historical  foun- 
dations of  Christianity  and  all  faith  in  a  super- 
natural revelation  ;  it  penetrates  the  masses  by 
the  endless  ramifications  of  the  periodical  press, 
which  has  become  a  formidable  rival  of  the 
pulpit.  But  the  antidote  is  also  at  hand.  An 
evangelical  theology  has  sprung  up  which  is 
successfully  combating  error  in  all  its  forms. 
There  is  more  general  intelligence,  more  vital 
energy  and  activity,  and  a  great  deal  more 
charity  and  catholicity  in  Protestantism  than 
ever  before.  Bible  distribution,  home  arid  for- 
eign missions,  literary  and  benevolent  insti- 
tutions are  steadily  increasing.  Germany  has 
taken  the  lead  in  the  theoretical  part  of  this 
work  of  reconstruction,  and  has  been  for  the 


The  Reformed  Confessions.  35 

last  fifty  years  the  chief  workshop  of  evangel- 
ical theology,  as  it  has  been  of  Rationalism  ; 
while  England  and  America  have  carried  on 
mainly  the  practical  work  of  religion,  and  are 
above  all  other  nations  intrusted  with  the  pres- 
ervation and  spread  of  Bible  Christianity  to  the 
ends  of  the  earth.  Both  are  coming  nearer 
and  nearer  together  through  their  literature 
and  personal  intercourse,  to  their  mutual  ben- 
efit. The  Teutonic  and  the  Anglo-Saxon  races 
united  are  a  match  for  the  world.  We  need 
not  fear  the  final  issue  of  the  present  conflict 
with  superstition  and  infidelity.  What  the 
£reat  Athanasius  said  of  the  short  and  abortive 
reign  of  Julian  the  Apostate,  may  be  applied  to 
every  phase  of  error  and  unbelief:  "It  is  a 
little  cloud,  it  will  soon  pass  away.''  Christi- 
anity, which  has  overcome  so  many  foes,  and 
grown  stronger  in  every  battle,  will  no  doubt 
survive  ;  its  past  is  secure,  and  affords  the  best 
guarantee  for  the  future. 


36  The  Harmony  of 


THE    RELATION   OF    MODERN   EVANGELICAL  THEOL- 
OGY TO   THE   REFORMED   CONFESSIONS. 

The  religious  revival  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury  in  the  Protestant  Churches  is  a  return  to 
the  faith  of  the  Reformation  as  laid  down  in 
the  Bible  and  the  symbolical  books.  But  it  is 
not  a  mere  restoration  of  the  old,  it  is  also  a 
free  reproduction  and  an  advance.  The  faith 
is  the  same,  the  theology  is  different.1  It  is  dif- 
ferent in  the  form  of  statement  and  the  relative 
importance  and  arrangement  of  topics.  Every 
age  must  produce  its  own  theology  adapted  to 
its  peculiar  condition  and  wants.  Thus  we  have 
a  patristic  theology,  a  scholastic  theology,  a 
Reformation  theology,  and  a  modern  evangel- 

1  [In  the  discussion  which  followed,  Dr.  Begg  of  Edin- 
burgh took  exception  to  this  statement,  and  said  that  "  all 
theology  was  contained  in  the  first  promise  given  in  Par- 
adise." To  this  Dr.  Ormiston  of  New  York  (himself  a 
native  of  Scotland,  "  brought  up  on  oat  cakes  and  the 
Shorter  Catechism  ")  aptly  replied  :  "  Very  true.  In  like 
manner  the  human  race  was  also  contained  in  Paradise, 
but  it  has  been  wondrously  developed  since."] 


The  Reformed  Confessions:  $7 

ical  theology,  not  to  speak  of  the  various 
shades  of  denominational  theologies.  Divine 
truth,  as  revealed  in  the  Scriptures,  is  un- 
changeably the  same  yesterday,  to-day,  and 
forever  ;  but  it  must  be  ever  reproduced,  newly 
appropriated,  and  represented  in  all  its  phases. 
The  human  understanding  and  exposition  of 
the  truth  is  steadily  progressing  with  the 
Church  itself,  though  passing  through  many 
obstructions  and  reactions.  Every  true  pro- 
gress in  theology  is  conditioned  by  a  deeper 
study  and  understanding  of  the  Word  of  God, 
which  is  ever  new,  and  renewing  the  Church, 
and  will  ever  remain  the  infallible  and  inex- 
haustible fountain  of  revealed  truth.  The 
Scriptures  may  have  been  studied  more  in- 
tensely and  devoutly  in  former  ages,  but  they 
were  never  studied  so  extensively  and  with 
such  an  array  of  facilities  and  advantages  as  at 
the  present  age.  Every  progress  in  exegesis 
must  have  its  effect  upon  systematic  theology 
and  the  symbolic  statement  of  truth. 

Let  us    endeavor  to   indicate   the  points  of 


38  The  Harmony  of 

difference  between  the  modern  and  the  old 
theology  of  the.  Reformed  Churches  as  viewed 
from  an  oecumenical  point  of  view,  and  leaving 
room  for  some  qualifications  in  detail.  Upon 
the  whole  the  Anglo-American  theology  is  more 
orthodox  in  the  historical  sense  than  the  Conti- 
nental, but  in  some  points  it  is  more  liberal.  I 
have  to  take  an  average  view  before  this  As- 
sembly  which  represents  all  sections  of  the  Re- 
formed Church,  and  I  may  be  permitted  to  say 
that,  within  the  last  six  months  of  travel  through 
Europe  and  the  East,  I  had  special  opportu- 
nities to  ascertain  the  state  of  theological  sen- 
timent on  all  the  leading  questions  on  which  I 
shall  touch. 

1 .  Bibliology. — On  the  fundamental  and  pre- 
liminary question  of  the  divine  authority  and 
absolute  sovereignty  of  the  canonical  Scriptures 
as  the  only  infallible  rule  of  faith,  the  position 
of  the  Reformed  Confessions  after  an  experi- 
ence of  three  centuries  stands  unaltered  and 
impregnable.  This  is  to-day,  as  it  was  in  the 
sixteenth  century,  the  articulus   stantis  vel  ca- 


The  Reformed  Confessions.  39 

dent  is  cedes  ice  evangcliccz,  as  the  article  of  the 
divinity  of  Christ  is  the  articulus  stantis  vel 
cadentis  ccclesice  Christiana.  "The  Bible,  the 
whole  Bible,  and  nothing  but  the  Bible,"  said 
Chilli  no-worth,  "  is  the  religion  of  Protestants." 
Since  the  development  of  Vatican  Romanism 
and  the  rise  of  Rationalism  it  is  all  the  more 
important  to  maintain  our  stand  upon  the  im- 
movable rock  of  God's  truth,  without  additions 
or  deductions.  Christ  and  his  gospel  are  the 
sum  and  substance  of  evangelical  Protestant- 
ism, as  the  Church  and  her  traditions  are  the 
sum  and  substance  of  Roman  Catholicism. 
Protestantism  stands  or  falls  with  the  Bible, 
Romanism  stands  or  falls  with  the  papacy.  We 
cannot  o-o  back  to  Romanism ;  still  less  can  we 
surrender  ourselves  to  the  icy  embrace  of 
Rationalism.  We  should,  indeed,  honor  and 
consult  the  universal  voice  of  Christendom,  and 
allow  it  full  weight  in  the  interpretation  of  the 
Bible  ;  nor  should  we  despise  reason,  which  God 
has  o-iven  us  as  the  oro;an  for  ascertaining  and 
understanding  his  revealed  truth  ;  but  the  final 


4-0  The  Harmony  of 

appeal  must  always  be  to  "  the  Law  and  the 
Testimony."  Tradition  and  reason  are  not  the 
divine  Light  itself,  but,  like  John  the  Baptist, 
they  "bear  witness  of  that  Light,"  that  "  all 
men  through  them  might  believe."  Amicus 
Calvinus,  amicus  Lutherus,  amicus  Augus- 
tinus,  sea7  magis  arnica  Veritas,  et  ve7'faim  Dei 
est  Veritas. 

If  the  Holy  Spirit  himself  could  not  clearly 
and  unmistakably  point  out  the  way  of  salva- 
tion, it  is  not  likely  that  popes  and  councils, 
composed  of  sinful  and  erring  mortals,  can  do 
it  any  better.  If  the  teaching  of  our  Lord  in 
the  Gospels  and  Epistles  does  not  contain  the 
pure  Christianity,  we  look  in  vain  for  it  in  the 
whole  domain  of  ecclesiastical  literature. 

We  must  therefore  maintain  the  true  infalli- 
bility of  God's  Word  against  the  pretended  in- 
fallibility of  the  Vatican,  which,  like  Pharisee- 
ism  of  old,  obscures  and  paralyzes  the  Bible 
by  human  additions  ;  and  against  the  fallibility 
of  pseudo- Protestant  Rationalism,  which,  like 
Sadduceeism,  mutilates  the  Bible,  and  substi- 


The  Reformed  Confessions.  41 

tutes  for  it  the  uncertain   guidance  of  human 
reason. 

The  divine  authority  of  the  Scripture  implies, 
of  course,  its  divine  inspiration,  and  has  no 
sense  without  it.  But  as  regards  the  mode  of 
inspiration,  which  must  be  distinguished  from 
the  fact  of  inspiration,  the  mechanical  or  magi- 
cal theory  of  the  seventeenth  century,  which 
looked  exclusively  at  the  divine  aspect  of  the 
Bible,  and  reduced  the  sacred  writers  to  pas- 
sive penmen  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  has  been  aban- 
doned for  an  organic  theory  which  does  full 
justice  to  the  human  and  historical  character  of 
the  Bible,  and  regards  the  authors  as  the  free 
organs  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  representing  the 
unity  and  harmony  of  eternal  truth  in  a  variety 
of  gifts  and  modes  of  thought  and  style.  The 
written  Word  is  all  divine  and  all  human,  and 
reflects  the  theanthropic  character  and  glory  of 
the  personal  Logos  who  became  flesh  for  our 
salvation.  As  the  recognition  of  Christ's  full 
humanity,  yet  without  sin,  brings  him  nearer  to 
us,  so  the  recognition  of  the  human  element  in 


42  The  Harmony  of 

the  Bible,  yet  without  error,  ought  to  make  it 
clearer  to  our  understanding  and  dearer  to  our 
heart. 

This  view  of  inspiration  was  anticipated  by 
Luther  and  Calvin,  who,  with  the  profoundest 
reverence  for  the  divine  substance  of  the  Bible, 
had  a  very  liberal  view  of  its  human  form  ;  it 
is  not  inconsistent  with  the  Reformed  Confes- 
sions, which  simply  assert  the  fact  of  the  divine 
inspiration,  without  committing  themselves  to 
any  particular  theory  of  its  mode.  (The  Hel- 
vetic Consensus  Formula,  which  teaches  even 
the  inspiration  of  the  Hebrew  vowel-points, 
makes  an  exception,  but  never  acquired  general 
authority.)  The  Westminster  statement  on 
this  subject  is  as  cautious  and  circumspect  as  it 
is  clear  and  strong. 

2.  The  Theological  Standpoint.  —  The 
theology  of  the  Confessions  was  anti- Romish, 
and  directed  against  the  unscriptural  traditions 
and  additions  of  superstition  or  misbelief;  the 
modern  evangelical  theology  is  anti-rationalis- 
tic, and  directed  against  the  deductions  and  ne- 


The  Reformed  Confessions.  43 

gations  of  unbelief.  The  former  had  to  deal 
with  an  excessive  supernaturalism,  the  latter 
with  the  denial  of  the  supernatural  and  miracu- 
lous. The  former  was  chiefly  concerned  with 
anthropological  and  soteriological  problems  ;  the 
latter  has  to  vindicate  the  authenticity  and  in- 
tegrity of  the  Bible  against  negative  criticism, 
the  existence  and  personality  of  God  against 
Atheism  and  Pantheism,  and  the  true  divinity 
and  historicity  of  Christ  against  the  mythical, 
legendary,  and  humanitarian  pseudo-Christolo- 
gies  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

Hence  some  doctrines  which  were  most 
prominent  in  the  Reformation  period  must  give 
precedence  to  others  which  were  then  not  dis- 
puted by  the  contending  parties.  Modern  the- 
ology is  neither  solifidian  nor  predestinarian 
nor  sacramentarian,  but  Christological.  The 
pivotal  or  central  doctrine  round  which  all 
others  cluster,  is  not  justification  by  faith,  nor 
election  and  reprobation,  nor  the  mode  of  the 
eucharistic  presence,  but  the  great  mystery  of 
God  manifest   in   the   flesh,   the  divine-human 


44  The  Harmony  of 

personality  and  atoning  work  of  our  Lord.  In 
this  respect  modern  theology  goes  back  to  the 
primitive  confession  of  Peter  (Matt.  xvi.  16), 
and  the  criterion  of  John  concerning  the  marks 
of  Antichrist  (i  John  iv.  2,  3).  The  great 
question  on  which  the  very  existence  of  Chris- 
tianity depends  is  again  asked,  "  Who  do  men 
say  that  I  the  Son  of  Man  am  ?  "  And  to  this 
question  the  experience  of  eighteen  centuries 
returns  the  answer  of  the  first  confessor,  "  Thou 
art  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living  God." 

All  evangelical  denominations  in  their  ablest 
divines  are  vermin  or  toward  a  Christolop;ical 
theology,  in  which  alone  they  can  ultimately 
adjust  their  differences.  For  the  nearer  they 
approach  Christ,  the  nearer  they  will  come  to 
each  other.  Christ  is  the  true  concord  of  a^es, 
the  divine  harmony  of  human  discords. 

3.  Catholicity. — The  old  theology  was  in- 
tensely polemical,  denominational,  and  exclu- 
sive. It  grew  out  of  the  gigantic  struggle  with 
the  papacy,  and  in  the  heat  of  controversy  did 
great  injustice  to  the  mediaeval   Church,  which 


The  Reformed  Confessions.  45 

after  all  was  the  cradle  of  the  Reformation,  as 
Judaism  was  the  cradle  of  Christianity.  The 
war  with  Rome  was  followed  by  internal  wars 
of  equal  bitterness  between  Lutheranism  and 
Calvinism,  Calvinism  and  Arminianism,  Epis- 
copacy and  Presbytery,  Presbytery  and  Inde- 
pendency. Disproportionate  importance  was 
attached  to  minor  points  of  difference,  and  the 
elements  of  truth  on  the  side  of  the  opponent 
were  ignored  or  denied. 

There  is  still,  and  ever  will  be  to  the  end  of 
the  world,  a  great  deal  of  sectarian  bigotry  with 
which  even  the  eods  fiorht  m  vam  but  it  has 
lost  its  former  hold  upon  the  Christian  people. 
The  experience  of  three  hundred  years,  and 
the  vast  increase  of  our  knowledge  of  church 
history,  with  its  lessons  of  wisdom  and  charity, 
have  widened  the  theological  horizon.  De- 
nominations which  formerly  stood  in  battle 
array  against  each  other  have  forgotten  their 
old  animosities,  and  learnt  to  co-operate  free- 
ly and  heartily  in  catholic  enterprises,  and 
against  the   common   enemies   of  Christianity. 


46  The  Harmony  of 

The  articles  of  agreement  are  magnified 
above  the  articles  of  disagreement.  The  Old 
and  New  School  Presbyterians  of  the  United 
States,  after  a  thirty  years'  theological  war, 
have  concluded  a  peace  which  it  is  hoped  will 
never  be  broken,  and  the  result  so  far  has  been 
increased  vitality  and  energy.  A  similar  union 
has  taken  place  among  Presbyterians  in  Eng- 
land, in  Scotland,  and  in  Canada,  and  will  we 
trust  extend  still  further,  until  all  family  feuds 
of  the  past  shall  be  healed.  The  Evangelical 
Alliance  has  clone  much  toward  individual 
Christian  union,  and  I  trust  that  the  Presby- 
terian Alliance,  while  aiming  to  promote  ec- 
clesiastical or  confederate  union  among  the 
branches  of  the  Presbyterian  family,  will  not 
weaken  but  strengthen  Christian  union  anions 
believers  of  every  denomination.  Both  Alli- 
ances were  chiefly  founded  and  are  promoted 
by  the  same  class  of  men,  and  are  animated  by 
the  same  spirit.  The  problem  of  Christian  union 
and  brotherhood  is  one  of  the  great  problems  of 
the  nineteenth  century,  and  will  work  itself  out 


The  Reformed  Confessions.  47 

in  various  ways  until  the  great  prophecy  of  the 
one  Shepherd  and  one  flock  be  fully  realized. 

4.  Moderation  of  high  Calvinism. — The 
scholastic  Calvinists  of  the  seventeenth  century 
mounted  the  alpine  heights  of  eternal  decrees 
with  intrepid  courage,  and  revelled  in  the  rev- 
erential contemplation  of  the  sovereign  majesty 
of  God,  which  seemed  to  require  the  damnation 
of  the  great  mass  of  sinners,  including  untold 
millions  of  heathen  and  infants,  for  the  mani- 
festation of  his  terrible  justice.  Inside  the  circle 
of  the  elect  all  was  bright  and  delightful  in  the 
sunshine  of  infinite  mercy,  but  outside  all  was 
darker  than  midnight.  This  system  of  doctrine 
commands  our  respect,  for  it  has  produced  a 
race  of  most  earnest  and  heroic  Christians,  but 
it  is  nevertheless  austere  and  repulsive  ;  it  glo- 
rifies the  justice  of  God  above  his  mercy  ;  it  sa- 
vors more  of  the  Old  Testament  than  of  the 
New,  and  is  better  at  home  on  Mount  Sinai 
than  on  Calvary.  "  God  is  love,"  and  love  is 
the  only  key  that  can  unlock  the  deepest  mean- 
ing of  his  words  and  works. 


48  The  Harmony  of 

The  greater  liberality  of  modern  Calvinism 
shows  itself  especially  in  the  doctrine  of  pre- 
destination and  infant  salvation. 

(a)  The  problem  of  predestination  and  of 
the  relation  of  divine  sovereignty  to  human 
responsibility  is  not  yet  solved,  either  philo- 
sophically or  theologically,  and  will  perhaps 
never  be  solved  theoretically  until  we  see  face 
to  face.  But  there  is  a  practical  solution  in 
which  all  true  Christians  can  agree,  namely,  that 
all  who  are  saved  are  saved  by  the  free  grace 
of  God  without  any  merit  of  their  own — and 
this  is  Calvinism  ;  and  that  all  who  are  lost  are 
lost  by  their  own  guilt  in  rejecting  the  gospel 
sincerely  offered  to  them — and  this  is  Armin- 
ianism.  Good  Calvinists  preach  like  Method- 
ists, as  if  everything  depended  on  man  ;  good 
Methodists  pray  like  Calvinists,  as  if  everything 
depended  on  God.  St.  Paul  himself  represents 
the  fact  that  God  works  in  us  both  the  will  and 
the  deed,  as  the  reason  why  we  should  work 
out  our  salvation  with  fear  and  trembling. 
This    may   be  logically  inconsistent,   but  finite 


The  Reformed  Confessions.  49 

Wic  is   not  the    ultimate  standard    of  infinite 
truth. 

Election  by  free  grace  and  perseverance  of 
saints  (viewed  as  a  duty  as  well  as  a  divine 
gift)  will  no  doubt  always  remain  distinctive 
features  of  Calvinistic  theology,  as  they  are 
clearly  and  strongly  taught  in  the  Bible,  but 
the  decree  of  reprobation  (except  as  a  judicial 
act  for  the  actual  guilt  of  unbelief)  is  now  rarely 
taught  and  never  preached.  If  Presbyterians 
preach  on  the  mystery  of  predestination  at  all, 
which  is  very  seldom,  they  never  forget  to 
mention  human  freedom  and  responsibility,  and 
to  trace  man's  ruin  to  his  own  unbelief.  No 
Reformed  Synod  (at  least  on  the  Continent) 
could  now  pass  the  rigorous  canons  of  Dort 
against  Arminianism,  which,  after  a  tempora- 
ry defeat,  has  silently  leavened  the  National 
Church  of  Holland,  and  which,  through  the 
o-reat  Methodist  revival,  has  become  one  of 
the  most  powerful  converting  agencies  in  Great 
Britain  and  America.  The  five  knotty  points 
of  Calvinism  have  lost  their  point,  and  have 
3 


5o  The  Han ? tony  of 

been  smoothed  off  by  God's  own  working  in 
the  history  of  the  Church. 

(b)  Infant  salvation. — It  has  now  become  al- 
most an  article  of  faith  in  the  Reformed 
Churches,  that  all  infants  dying  in  infancy  are 
saved  by  the  atonement.*  This  is  a  liberal 
but  entirely  legitimate  development  of  the 
Calvinistic  doctrine  of  election,  which  allows 
an  indefinite  extension  of  God's  saving  grace 
beyond  the  visible  means  of  grace.  All  ortho- 
dox systems  which  hold  to  the  necessity  of 
water-baptism  for  salvation  lead  to  the  horri- 
ble conclusion  that  all  unbaptized  infants  dy- 
ing in  infancy,  as  well  as  all  the  heathen,  that 
is,  by  far  the  greatest  part  of  the  human  race 
past  and  present,  are  lost  forever.  It  is  a  poor 
relief  if  Augustine,  who  first  clearly  taught  this 
unchristian  dogma,  makes  a  distinction  between 
negative    damnation    or  absence   of  bliss,  and 


*  As  far  as  America  is  concerned,  Dr.  Hodge  positively 
affirms  that  "  he  never  saw  a  Calvinistic  theologian  who 
held  the  doctrine  of  infant  damnation  in.  any  sense."  See 
his  System  Theology ',  vol.  iii.,  p.  605,  and  my  work  on 
Creeds,  vol.  i.,  p.  795. 


The  Reformed  Confessions.  5i 

positive  damnation  or  actual  torment,  and  as- 
signs to  infants  "  the  easiest  room  in  hell." 
Hell  is  hell,  and  was  made  only  for  impenitent 
sinners  who  refuse  to  be  saved.  Zwingli  was 
the  first,  but  the  only  one  among  the  Reformers 
(except  his  friend  and  successor,  Bullinger), 
who  had  the  courage  to  oppose  this  dismal 
view,  and  to  teach  the  salvation  of  all  infants, 
and  of  a  laree  number  of  adult  heathen.  The 
second  Scotch  Confession  "  abhors  and  de- 
tests," among  the  doctrines  of  the  Roman  An- 
tichrist, "  his  cruel  judgment  against  infants 
departing  without  the  sacrament."  The  West- 
minster Confession  teaches  that  "  elect  infants 
dying  in  infancy,  and  all  other  elect  persons 
who  are  incapable  of  being  outwardly  called 
by  the  ministry  of  the  word,  are  regenerated 
and  saved  by  Christ  through  the  Spirit,  who 
worketh  when,  and  where,  and  how  he  pleas- 
eth."  It  is  true  some  of  the  older  Calvinists 
make  a  distinction  between  elect  and  reprobate 
infants  ;  but  the  Calvinistic  system  allows  the 
charitable  assumption  that  all  infants  dying  in 


52  The  Harmony  of 

infancy  are  among  the  elect,  and  that  their 
removal  from  a  world  of  temptation  before 
committing  any  actual  transgression  and  con- 
tracting personal  guilt,  is  a  proof  of  God's 
saving  mercy  to  them.  There  can  be  no  sal- 
vation without  Christ,  but  salvation  does  not 
necessarily  require  a  historical  knowledge  of 
Christ  any  more  than  damnation  requires  a  his- 
torical knowledge  of  Adam's  fall.  It  is  the 
<_>  ____^ 

will  of  our  blessed  Saviour,  who  took  special 
delight  in  children,  that  "  none  of  these  little 
ones  should  perish." 

5.  Religious  Liberty. — The  Calvinistic  (as 
well  as  the  Lutheran)  Confessions  presuppose  a 
Christian  State  and  a  uniformity  of  belief  among 
the  people,  and  assign  to  the  Civil  Magistrate 
the  duty  not  only  to  support  the  Church  and 
its  ministry,  but  also  to  punish  heresy  as  an. 
offense  against  society.  The  principle  and 
practice  of  persecution  for  religious  convictions 
prevailed  almost  universally  since  the  days 
of  Constantine  and  the  union  of  Church  and 
State,  although    the    persecuted    party    always 


The  Reformed  Confessions.  53 

complained  of  the  application  on  the  ground 
of  innocency.  In  the  age  of  the  Reformation 
the  Anabaptists  and  Socinians  were  the  only 
Christians  who  advocated  toleration  from  prin- 
ciple. The  burning  of  Servetus  for  heresy 
and  blasphemy  is  the  one  dark  stain  on  the 
fair  fame  of  the  great  and  good  Calvin,  but 
it  was  justified  even  by  the  gentle  Melanch- 
thon.  Anabaptists  were  drowned  and  burnt 
by  the  score  in  Protestant  as  well  as  Roman 
Catholic  countries.  The  Church  history  of 
England  from  Henry  VIII.  clown  to  William 
III.  is  an  unbroken  tragedy  of  persecution 
of  Romanists  against  Protestants,  Protestants 
against  Romanists,  Anglicans  against  Puritans, 
and  Puritans  against  Anglicans.  Even  the  vir- 
gin  soil  of  New  England  was  stained  by  the 
martyr  blood  of  Quakers,  under  the  theocratic 
rule  of  Congregationalism,  whose  champions  in 
the  Westminster  Assembly  had  advocated  the 
sacred  rights  of  conscience.  All  Protestant 
sects,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  which  never 
had  a  chance  to  rule,-  are  guilty  of  intolerance 


54  The  Harmony  of 

and  persecution,  though  in  a  far  less  degree 
than  the  Roman  Church,  from  which  they  in- 
herited the  principle,  and  which  adheres  to  it 
to  this  day,  as  the  Papal  Syllabus  of  1864,  and 
the  Pope's  recent  conduct  in  Spain  abundantly 
prove. 

The  Act  of  Toleration  in  1689,  though  far 
from  the  full  conception  of  the  rights  of  con- 
science, closes  the  dark  chapter  of  religious 
persecution  in  England,  at  least  under  its  more 
violent  form,  and  inaugurated  the  era  of  reli- 
gious liberty  among  Protestants.  The  Baptists 
and  Ouakers  made  the  doctrine  of  religious 
liberty  an  article  of  their  creed.  By  a  combi- 
nation of  various  causes  it  has  become  almost 
a  universal  belief  among  Protestants,  at  least  in 
Great  Britain  and  in  North  America,  that  God 
alone  is  Lord  of  the  conscience,  that  faith  is  a 
free  act  which  cannot  be  enforced,  that  all  co- 
ercion in  religious  matters  is  evil,  and  evil  only, 
and  contrary  to  the  teaching  and  example  of 
Christ  and  his  apostles.  Spiritual  errors  must 
be  spiritually  judged  by  ecclesiastical  censures, 


The  Reformed  Confessions.  55 

admonition,  suspension,  and  excommunication. 
The  Civil  Magistrate  has  no  control  over  here- 
sies  and  schisms,  and  is  bound  to  protect  the 
liberty  of  conscience  and  of  public  worship  as 
one  of  the  fundamental  and  inalienable  rights 
of  all  its  citizens,  so  far  as  this  liberty  does  not 
interfere  with  the  peace  of  society. 

On  this  subject  the  Anglo-Saxon  Protestants 
are  ahead  of  the  Continental  Protestants.  In 
the  United  States  the  Episcopal  Church  has 
changed  the  Thirty-nine  Articles,  and  the  Pres- 
byterian Church  the  Westminster  Standards, 
so  as  to  adapt  them  to  this  modern  conviction  ; 
while  in  England  and  Scotland  the  objection- 
able clauses  have  become  a  dead  letter,  or  are 
expressly  disowned,  or  liberally  explained. 
The  battles  of  Christendom  must  hereafter  be 
fought  out  on  the  basis  of  freedom  and  equality 
before  the  law,  and  without  those  carnal  weap- 
ons which  are  forbidden  by  the  spirit  of  the 
New  Testament. 


56  The  Harmony  of 


THE   REFORMED  CONSENSUS   AND  THE    PRESBY- 
TERIAN  ALLIANCE. 

This  is,  I  trust,  a  fair  historical  statement  of 
the  Consensus  of  the  Reformed  Confessions, 
and  the  present  state  of  Evangelical  theology 
in  relation  to  it. 

We  now  approach  the  difficult  and  delicate 
practical  question  of  the  relation  of  this  Al- 
liance to  the  Consensus.  The  constitution 
adopted  in  the  preliminary  meeting  at  London 
(21st  July,  1875)  lays  down  as  the  doctrinal 
basis  of  the  Alliance,  "  the  Consensus  of  the 
Reformed  Confessions.''  But  it  does  not  define 
this  consensus,  nor  is  there  any  recognized  for- 
mula of  the  kind.  The  subject,  therefore,  will 
have  to  be  settled  sooner  or  later,  and  this  is 
the  proper  time  to  discuss  it,  although  we  may 
not  be  prepared  to  take  any  definite  action. 
I  shall  confine  myself  to  a  few  suggestions 
which  I  offer  with  modesty  and  some  diffi- 
dence to  the  consideration   of  wiser  heads. 


The  Reformed  Confessions.  5y 

To  avoid  misunderstanding,  and  perhaps  un- 
necessary apprehension,  I  must  remark  at  the 
outset,  that  the  question  before  us  is  not  the 
question  of  the  revision  of  the  Westminster 
Confession,  or  of  any  other  confession.  That 
must  be  left  with  the  particular  Church  or 
Churches  which  own  that  confession.  This 
General  Presbyterian  Council,  moreover  has  no 
jurisdiction  or  legislative  authority.  It  may 
indeed  define  its  relation  to  the  historical  con- 
fessions, or  set  forth  a  new  one,  but  it  would 
have  no  binding  force  upon  any  Churches  ex- 
cept by  their  own  act  of  adopting  it. 

We  may  state  our  relation  to  the  Consensus 
in  two  ways — the  one  negative,  the  other  posi- 
tive. 

i.  The  doctrinal  consensus  need  not  be  for- 
mulated at  all,  but  maybe  left  an  open  question, 
which  every  delegate  must  decide  for  himself. 
The  Council  may  trust  the  personal  character 
of  the  individual  members,  as  a  living  guaran- 
tee for  the  doctrinal  purity  and  soundness  of 
the  body.  The  Christian  faith  is  older  than 
3* 


58  The  Harmony  of 

the  Apostles'  Creed,  and  the  evangelical  faith  is 
older  than  the  Protestant  Confessions.  Sooner 
or  later  questions  as  to  the  precise  nature  and 
extent  of  the  Consensus  will  probably  spring 
up ;  but  it  is  not  necessary  to  anticipate  future 
difficulties. 

2.  The  doctrinal  consensus  can  be  formulated 
by  the  Presbyterian  Council  after  long  and 
mature  deliberation.  This  again  may  be  done 
in  three  ways — 

(a)  By  a  list  of  doctrines,  or  an  index  of  the 
chief  heads  of  doctrine  on  which  agreement  is 
desired  and  required  as  a  condition  of  mem- 
bership, without  defining  the  doctrines  them- 
selves. There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  Re- 
formed Confessions  teach  the  same  views  on 
the  divine  inspiration  and  authority  of  the 
Scriptures,  the  unity  and  tripersonality  of  the 
Godhead,  the  divine-human  constitution  of 
Christ's  person,  the  atonement  by  his  blood, 
election  and  salvation  by  free  grace,  justification 
by  faith,  the  Church  and  the  sacraments.  Such 
a  list  would  be  similar  to  the  Nine  Articles  of 


The  Reformed  Confessions.  So. 

the  Evangelical  Alliance.  The  prevailing  the- 
ology might  show  itself  in  the  order  and  the 
wording  of  the  articles.  But  it  would  be  merely 
a  skeleton  of  a  confession. 

(li)  A  historical  statement,  or  brief  summary 
of  the  common  doctrines  of  the  old  confes- 
sions, without  additions  or  changes.  Such  a 
summary  has  been  actually  prepared  for  this 
Council  by  my  friend,  Dr.  Krafft,  professor  of 
Church  History  in  the  University  of  Bonn,  who 
is  thoroughly  familiar  with  the  confessions,  and 
in  sympathy  with  their  spirit.  His  paper  would 
form  a  eood  basis  for  an  official  document  of 
the  Council,  if  it  should  deem  proper  to  adopt 
this  course. 

(V)  A  new  oecumenical  Reformed  Confession. 
By  this  I  mean  the  Consensus  of  the  old  Re- 
formed Confessions  freely  reproduced  and  ad- 
apted to  the  present  state  of  the  Church  ;  in 
other  words,  the  creed  of  the  Reformation 
translated  into  the  theology  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  with  a  protest  against  modern  Roman- 
ism and  Rationalism.     This  would  be  a  work  for 


60  The  Harmony  of 

our  age,  such  as  Cranmer  invited  the  Reformers 
to  prepare  for  their  age,  and  would  thus  fulfill 
the  joint  wish  of  these  great  and  good  men. 

A  new  confession  would  be  a  testimony  of 
the  living  faith  of  the  Church,  and  a  bond  of 
union  amoncr  the  different  branches  of  the  Re- 
formed  family,  as  the  Apostles'  Creed  is  among 
all  Christians,  or  as  the  common  English  ver- 
sion of  the  Scriptures  is  among  English-speak- 
ing Protestants.  It  would  not  necessarily  in- 
terfere with  the  provincial  authority  of  the 
numerous  confessions  over  which  this  Council 
has  no  control,  and  with  which  it  ought  not 
to  meddle.  It  would  have  to  be  prepared  by 
a  body  of  able,  wise,  and  godly  divines, 
representing  all  the  Churches  of  the  Pres- 
byterian Alliance,  for  quod  tang  it  omncs  debet 
tractari  ab  omnibus.  Its  authority  would  of 
course  depend  upon  the  general  consent  of 
the  Churches. 

The  preparation  of  such  a  confession  would 
afford  an  excellent  opportunity  to  simplify  and 
popularize  the  Reformed  system  of  doctrine,  to 


The  Reformed  Confessions.  61 

utter  a  protest  against  the  peculiar  errors  and 
dangers  of  our  age,  and  to  exhibit  the  fraternal 
attitude  of  this  Alliance  to  the  other  evangeli- 
cal Churches  which  have  sprung  up  since  the 
Reformation  and  have  been  blessed  by  God. 
It  ought  to  be  truly  evangelical  catholic  in 
spirit.  A  confession  which  would  intensify 
Presbyterianism  and  loosen  the  ties  which 
unite  us  to  the  other  branches  of  Christ's 
kingdom,  I  would  regard  as  a  calamity.  We 
want  a  wall  to  keep  off  the  wolves,  but  not  a 
fence  to  divide  the  sheep  ;  we  want  a  declara- 
tion of  union,  not  a  platform  of  disunion. 

The  right  to  frame  a  new  confession  or  to 
revise  the  old  ones  is  beyond  dispute.  The 
desirableness  of  a  common  doctrinal  bond  of 
union  among  the  Reformed  Churches  is  like- 
wise apparent.  But  the  expediency  of  such 
a  work  at  the  present  time  is,  to  say  the  least, 
very  doubtful.  The  pear  may  be  ripening,  but 
it  is  not  ripe  yet.  If  we  were  ready  for  it,  I 
would  say,  let  us  take  this  course,  but  we  are 
not  prepared  for  it.     Let  me  state  the  reasons. 


62  The  Harmony  of 

In  the  first  place,  creeds  and  confessions  of 
faith  which  have  vitality  and  power,  usually 
spring  from  great  doctrinal  controversies  and 
deep  religious  commotions.  They  cannot  be 
made  to  order,  like  political  platforms.  No 
amount  of  theological  learning  and  literary 
ability  is  sufficient.  They  require  a  religious 
fervor  and  enthusiasm  that  is  ready  for  any 
sacrifice,  even  the  death  of  martyrdom.  They 
are  solemn  acts  of  faith,  and  the  product  of  a 
higher  inspiration. 

In  the  second  place,  our  theology  is  in  a 
transition  state,  and  has  not  yet  reached  such 
clear  and  definite  results  as  could  be  embodied 
in  a  form  of  sound  words.  It  would  be  impos- 
sible to  unite  all  the  Reformed  Churches  under 
an  elaborate  theological  confession  such  as 
were  those  of  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth 
centuries.  The  new  Form  of  Concord  might 
become  a  Form  of  Discord.  The  Anglo- 
American  Churches  would  require  a  maximum 
of  orthodoxy,  the  Continental  Churches  would 
be  content  with  a  minimum  of  orthodoxy.    The 


The  Reformed  Confessions.  63 

recent  Continental  confessions  framed  by  the 
Free  Church  of  the  Canton  de  Vaud,  1847 
(thirty  printed  lines),  the  Free  Church  of  Ge- 
neva, 1848  (seventeen  articles,  one  hundred 
lines),  the  General  Synod  of  the  Reformed 
Church  of  France,  1872  (fifteen  lines),  of  the 
Evangelical  Church  Association  of  Switzer- 
land,  187:  (twenty-two  lines),  of  the  Free 
Church  of  Italy,  1872  (eight  articles,  thirty- 
eight  lines),  of  the  Free  Church  of  Neuchatel 
in  1874  (a  dozen  lines),  are  very  brief,  and 
leave  room  for  a  great  variety  of  views.1  So 
are  the  Nine  Articles  of  the  Evangelical  Alli- 
ance. 


1  We  give  as  a  specimen  the  Confession  of  the  "  Evan- 
gelical Church  of  Neuchatel,  independent  of  the  State," 
which  is  as  follows  : — "  Faithful  to  the  holy  truth  which 
the  apostles  preached,  and  which  the  reformers  brought 
again  to  light,  the  Evangelical  Church  of  Neuchatel  ac- 
knowledges as  the  source  and  only  rule  of  its  faith  the 
Holy  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments.  It  pro- 
claims with  all  the  Christian  Church  the  great  facts  of  sal- 
vation, condensed  in  the  Creed  called  the  Apostles'  Creed. 
It  believes  in  God  the  Father,  who  has  saved  us  by  the 
life,  death,  and  resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ,  His  only  Son, 


64  The  Harmony  of 

It  seems  to  me,  therefore,  that  the  most  we 
can  do  in  the  present  Council  is  to  intrust  this 
whole  subject  to  the  hands  of  an  able  and 
comprehensive  Committee,  with  instructions 
to  gather  all  the  necessary  information  about 
creeds  and  subscription  to  creeds  within  the 
bounds  of  this  Alliance,  and  to  report  thereon 
to  the  next  triennial  meeting-. 

One  word  in  conclusion.  A  creed  is  a  re- 
sponse of  man  to  the  questions  of  God  ;  but 
God's  Word  is  better  than  the  best  human 
creed.  A  creed  is  a  confession  of  faith,  but  faith 
is  better  than  the  confession  of  it,  and  without 
faith  the  best  confession  is  but  "  as  sounding 
brass  or  a  tinkling  cymbal."  Much  as  we  es- 
teem doctrinal  unity,  there  is  a  higher  unity, 
the  unity  of  spiritual  life,  the  unity  of  faith,  the 

our  only  Lord  ;  and  who  has  regenerated  us  by  the  Holy 
Spirit.  And  it  confesses  this  faith  in  celebrating,  accord- 
ing to  the  institution  of  the  Lord,  the  sacraments  of  Bap- 
tism and  the  Lord's  Supper."  The  new  French  Confession, 
which  is  similar  to  this,  see  in  my  work  on  Creeds,  vol.  i., 
p.  500;  the  Geneva  Confession,  in  vol.  iii.,  p.  781;  the  Free 
Italian  Confession,  in  vol.  iii.,  p.  789. 


The  Reformed  Confessions.  65 

unity  of  love  which  binds  us  to  Christ,  and  to 
all  who  love  him,  of  whatever  denomination  or 
creed.  Let  us,  with  Peter  and  Thomas,  confess 
Christ  first  and  Christ  last,  and  let  our  confes- 
sion be  an  act  of  worship,  an  act  of  personal 
and  collective  self-consecration  to  him  who 
saved  us  from  sin  and  death,  and  leads  us  to 
immortality  and  glory.  Let  us  not  forget  what 
the  most  logical  and  the  most  theological  of 
all  inspired  apostles  says,  that  now  we  see 
through  a  glass  darkly,  but  then  we  shall  see 
face  to  face  ;  that  now  we  know  in  part,  but 
then  we  shall  know  in  full,  even  as  we  are 
known. 

"And   now  abideth   faith,  hope,  love,  these 
three  ;  but  the  greatest  of  these  is  love." 


66  The  Harmony  of 


ACTION    OF  THE  GENERAL  PRESBYTERIAN  COUNCIL 
ON  CONFESSIONS  OF  FAITH. 

The  Author  of  the  preceding  essay  was  followed  by  his 
friend,  Prof.  J.  Godet,  D.D.,  of  Neuchatel,  who  addressed 
the  Council  in  eloquent  and  elegant  French  on  the  im- 
portance of  making  the  eternal  divinity  of  our  Lord  and 
Saviour  the  burden  of  our  confession,  in  opposition  to 
modern  infidelity  (comp.  p.  43).  The  Rev.  Alex.  Cusin, 
of  Edinburgh,  read  a  translation  of  a  formulated  Consensus 
of  the  Reformed  Confessions,  in  thirty  brief  articles,  which 
Prof.  W.  Krafft,  D.D.,  of  Bonn,  had  prepared  for  the 
Council.  Then  followed  an  interesting  discussion  on  the 
subject  of  Creeds,  in  which  Drs.  Brown  of  Aberdeen, 
Lang  of  Glasgow,  Tulloch  and  Mitchell  of  St.  Andrews, 
Begg  of  Edinburgh,  Candlish  of  Glasgow,  Pressense  of 
Paris,  and  others,  took  part. 

At  the  close  of  the  discussion,  Alex.  Taylor  Innes,  Esq., 
of  Edinburgh  (the  author  of  a  standard  work  on  The  Law 
of  Creeds  in  Scotland},  offered  a  series  of  resolutions,  which 
were  seconded  by  Chancellor  Howard  Crosby,  D.D.,  of 
New  York  ;  referred  to  the  Business  Committee  ;  reported 
back  by  Dr.  Calderwood,  in  the  name  of  that  committee, 
on  the  next  day  (July  5),  "  as  competent  under  the  Consti- 
tution of  the  Council,"  and  unanimously  passed  as  follows  : 


The  Reformed  Confessions.  67 

"  That  this  Council  appoint  a  committee  with  instruc- 
tions to  prepare  a  report  to  be  laid  before  the  next  General 
Council,  showing  in  point  of  fact — 

"First,  What  are  the  existing  creeds  or  confessions  of 
Churches  composing  this  Alliance  ?  and,  What  have  been 
their  previous  creeds  and  confessions,  with  any  modifi- 
cation of  these,  and  the  dates  and  occasions  of  the  same, 
from  the  Reformation  to  the  present  day  ? 

"  Second,  What  are  the  existing  formulas  of  subscription, 
if  any,  and  what  have  been  the  previous  formulas  of  sub- 
scription, used  in  these  Churches* in  connection  with  their 
creeds  and  confessions  ? 

"  Third,  How  far  has  individual  adherence  to  these 
creeds  by  subscription  or  otherwise  been  required  from  the 
ministers,  elders,  or  other  office-bearers  respectively,  and 
also  from  the  private  members  of  the  same  ? 

"  And  the  Council  authorize  the  committee  to  corre- 
spond with  members  of  the  several  Churches  through- 
out the  world  who  may  be  able  to  give  information,  and 
they  enjoin  the  committee,  in  submitting  their  report,  not 
to  accompany  it  either  with  any  comparative  estimate  of 
these  creeds  and  regulations,  or  with  any  critical  remarks 
upon  their  respective  value,  expediency,  or  efficiency."  ] 

At  a  later  meeting,  on  motion  of  the  Business  Committee, 
the  following  gentlemen  were  appointed  a  committee  on 
Creeds  and  Formulas  of  subscription  under  the  abo?e  re- 


1  The  restriction  of  the  Committee  to  mere  facts  was  no  doubt  in- 
tended by  the  mover  to  cut  off  opposition  and  to  secure  a  unanimous 
vote. 


68  The  Harmony  of 

solutions  :  Dr.  Schaff,  New  York  (Convener)  ;  Professor 
Mitchell,  St.  Andrews  ;  Professor  Candlish,  Glasgow  ;  Pro- 
fessor Calderwood,  Edinburgh  ;  Professor  Lorimer,  Lon- 
don ;  Dr.  Knox,  Belfast ;  Professor  Jean  Monod,  Montau- 
ban  ;  M.  De  Pressense,  D.D.,  Paris  ;  Professor  Godet,  D.D., 
Neuchatel ;  Professor  Bulogh,  Debreczin  ;  Signor  Charbon- 
nier,  Italy  ;  Pastor  Cisar,  Nove  Mento,  Moravia  ;  Dr.  Alex. 
A.  Hodge,  Princeton,  U.  S.  ;  Rev.  G.  D.  Mathews,  New 
York  ;  Dr.  Brown,  Richmond;  Dr.  Peltz,  New  Paltz,  N.Y.  ; 
Dr.  Cooper,  Alleghany  ;  Dr.  Stewart  Robinson,  Louisville  ; 
Principal  Snodgrass,  Kingston,  Canada  ;  Dr.  Topp,  To- 
ronto, Canada  ;  Rev.  A.  Campbell,  Geelong,  Australia  ; 
Messrs.  George  Junkin,  Philadelphia ;  James  Mitchell, 
LL.D.,  Glasgow  ;  A.  Taylor  Innes,  Esq.,  Edinburgh  ;  and 
David  Laing,  LL.D.,  Edinburgh.1 


ACTION  OF  THE  COMMITTEE. 

This  Committee,  at  a  meeting  held  during  the  Sessions 
of  the  Council,  took  the  following  action,  as  recorded  by 
its  secretary,  Mr.  Innes  : 

"  At  a  meeting  of  the  Committee  of  the  General  Presbyte- 
rian Council  of  1877,  appointed  to  prepare  a  report 
to  the  next  Council  on  Confessions  and  Formulas, 
held  in  the  College  rooms  of  the  Free  Church  of 
Scotland,  on  Monday  the  9th  July,  1877, 

1  Four  members  were  added  afterwards,  see  p.  69,  footnote. 


The  Reformed  Confessions.  69 

Dr.  Schaff  was  called  to  the  chair,  as  Convener. 
Mr.  Taylor  Innes  was  appointed  to  act  as  clerk  to  the 
meeting. 

It  was  resolved  that  the  work  of  the  Committee  be  done 
as  much  as  possible  by  the  facts  called  for  in  the  Remit 
being  ascertained  for  each  country  by  the  members  of 
Committee  belonging  to  that  country,  under  charge  of  the 
following  Conveners  : 

For  Scotland,  Prof.  Mitchell. 
"    England,  Dr.  Lorimer. 
"    Ireland,  Dr.  Knox. 

"    British  Colonies,  Dr.  Snodgrass  and  Mr.  Campbell. 
Dr.  Lorimer  to  act  as  general  Convener. 
For  the  Southern  States,  Dr.  William  Brown. 
"      "    Northern  States,   Dr.  A.  A.  Hodge  and  Rev. 
G.  D.  Mathews. 

For  the  Dutch  Reformed  Church,  Dr.  Peltz. 
Rev.  Mr.  Mathews  to  act  as  general  Convener. 
For  Holland,  Dr.  Hoedemaker  (to  be  added  to  Com- 
mittee).* 

For  France,  Prof.  Monod. 
"    French  Switzerland,  Prof.  Godet. 
"    German  Switzerland,  Pastor  Bernard  (to  be  added 
to  Committee).* 

For  Bohemia  and  Moravia,  Mr.  Cisar. 
"    Hungary,  Prof.  Balogh. 
"    Italy,  Mr.  Charbonnier. 

"    South   Africa,   Rev.   Mr.    Murray  (to  be  added  to 
Committee).* 

*  MM.  Hoedemaker,  Bernard,  and  Murray,  with  the  Rev.  Owen 
Thomas  of  Liverpool,  were  next  day  (ioth  July,  1S77),  added  by  the 
Council  to  the  Committee  originally  appointed. 


jo      Harmony  of  Reformed  Confessions. 

Prof.  Monod  of  Montauban  to  act  as  general  Convener. 

It  was  also  resolved  that  the  returns  be  as  far  as  possi- 
ble digested  in  each  country  by  the  Conveners  and 
general  Conveners,  and  that  the  results,  with  as  much  of 
the  materials  and  documents  as  may  be  necessary,  be 
transmitted  through  these  general  Conveners  to  Dr.  Schaff 
[Bible  House,  New  York],  so  as  to  be  in  his  hands  not 
later  than  the  ist  of  January,  1879. 

It  was  resolved  that  while  the  older  and  larger  creeds 
already  found  in  collections  need  not  be  printed  except  in 
so  far  as  necessary  to  understand  the  modifications  of  them, 
all  such  modifications,  with  their  dates  and  occasions,  and 
all  formulas  of  adherence  since  the  reformation,  be  printed. 
And  Dr.  Schaff  was  authorized  to  apply  to  any  committee 
having  charge  of  funds  with  a  view  to  next  Council  or  on 
behalf  of  the  Alliance,  for  such  funds  as  may  be  necessary 
to  meet  the  expenses. 

Mr.  Innes  was  instructed  to  write  to  the  members  of 
Committee,  and  especially  the  Conveners,  intimating  gener- 
ally the  resolutions  of  the  meeting. 

(Signed,)  Philip  Schaff, 

Chairman. 
A  True  Copy. 

Alex.  Taylor  Innes, 

Secretary '." 


Theological  Seminary-Speer  Library 


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